Images

Akhilesh Yadav's first day out as the new chief minister of Uttar Pradesh virtually made him feel like a Bollywood star. But during his two-and-a-half hour long stay at the venue of the 'Hindustan Times Woman of the Year' show in Lucknow on Saturday evening, the country's youngest chief minister didn't bother putting up an act.

The charge-sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday contains some explosive revelations. The charge-sheet stated that Jagan prevailed upon his father -- late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy -- to commit offences and defraud the government to commit a criminal conspiracy.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said the Tatra scam was the second biggest after the Bofors scam and demanded immediate resignation of Defence Minister A K Antony for allegedly patronising corruption. "This (Tatra) is the second biggest scam after the Bofors scam and it has exposed the fact that the weapons of our soldiers are not up to standard," BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javdekar told a press conference.

Army chief Gen V K Singh has named retired Lt Gen Tejinder Singh in his complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation on the alleged Rs 14 crore bribe offered to him to clear tranche of nearly 600 Tatra trucks. CBI sources said Singh has assured them of providing more material about the alleged bribe offer very soon.

After giving a green signal to the Koodankulam nuclear power plant, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday demanded that the entire 2000 MW power to be generated by its two units be given to the state in view of the "severe power shortage."

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa on Saturday revoked the expulsion of close aide Sasikala. She had been sacked from the party in December for 'trying to dominate the AIADMK'.

Final part of the lecture given by Mumbai-born security expert at the National Defence University's Programme on Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Studies on the grave threat posed by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba to the world.

Grim details of the communal violence in Sangareddy town of Medak district in Andhra Pradesh were slowly emerging as the people of the town were yet to recover from the shocking incidents which started unfolding on Thursday night.

The Comptroller and Auditor General's reports on the scams under the watch of the UPA government at the Centre are being celebrated by the BJP, but when the auditor indicts the government of its blue-eyed boy in Gujarat, the party is strangely silent. reports from Gandhinagar

Citizens must remember that the job of the armed forces is to 'protect' democracy, NOT practice it. Neither is it the primary job of the Army chief or the defence minister to eradicate corruption. Their primary or the only job is to ensure that the armed forces of the republic are adequately armed and equipped to face the likely enemy and emerge victorious. Everything else is secondary and only in the nature of aim plus, says Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale

With the Cauvery water sharing row escalating, the Tamil Nadu government on Friday made it clear that it would not allow construction of a new dam by Karnataka at Mekedhatu across the river under "any circumstances."

Observing that India and Pakistan have a complex history characterised by "animosity, mistrust, and conflict", a top Pentagon official has warned that there is a potential of a nuclear exchange between them if Islamabad continues to support terror groups against the neighbouring country.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has called NRI businessman Ravi Rishi, owner of the United Kingdom-based Vectra Group, for questioning in connection with alleged irregularities in the supply of all-terrain Tatra trucks through state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited to the army.

Revealed -- the similarity between General VK Singh and Arjun Singh. Will Sharad Pawar and Ajit Singh rebel against the UPA? What's the BJP's great dilemma? All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.

In order to offer a solution to people distressed due to continuous apathy from the administration, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal has warned that citizens might soon refrain from payment of their taxes.

In one of the most detailed accounts of Osama bin Laden's life on the run, his youngest wife has told Pakistani investigators that the Al Qaeda leader lived in five safe houses as he travelled across Pakistan with his family for nine years following the 9/11 attacks.

Third part of the lecture given by Mumbai-born security expert at the National Defence University's Programme on Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Studies on the grave threat posed by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba to the world.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lit an oil lamp to mark the launch of the "Year of India-China Friendship and Cooperation" on Thursday after the two leaders met and discussed the state of their country's bilateral relations.

Terming the recent leak of Army Chief General VK Singh's March 12 letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as "anti-national," Defence Minister A K Antony on Thursday said he and the defence ministry would take the strongest possible action against those responsible for the leak under Indian law.

Facing demands for his dismissal, Army Chief Gen V K Singh on Thursday said the leak of his letter to the prime minister presenting a grim picture of the force's defence preparedness should be treated as "high treason" and the source of leakage dealt with "ruthlessly."

Tension between India's civilian and military leadership has steadily increased over the past few months and now appears to be at the highest it has been in decades. In his latest fusillade, the chief of army staff, General V K Singh, has said that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe by a retired army officer in order to clear the purchase of a set of armoured vehicles.

Second part of the lecture given by Mumbai-born security expert at the National Defence University's Programme on Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Studies on the grave threat posed by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba to the world.

The UPA government has been caught unawares once again. The latest salvo from Army Chief V K Singh, this time targetting the Prime Minister's Office, has left it groping in the dark for options. Rediff.com's analyses.

Rediff.com's visits Idinthakarai, the site of hunger strikes opposing the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant at Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, and tells us how the high-voltage agitation met a rather tame end.

Outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat leader Ahmed Ludhianvi played a cat-and-mouse game for almost six hours with the police and paramilitary forces who were trying to prevent them from entering the Pakistani capital.

Police from every state have a different version to the working of the Indian Mujahideen, and we have seen arrests galore. On one hand, the police claim that they have cracked a particular case after a couple of arrests, but the matter never seems to reach the logical end when the battle for conviction is fought before the court. reports.

A day-long bandh called by radical Sikh outfits to protest the proposed execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, convicted in the Beant Singh killing case, disrupted normal life in parts of Punjab on Wednesday.

Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt caught up with Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh (retd), who has been accused of allegedly offering army chief General V K Singh a bribe of Rs 14 crore in September 2010 for an arms deal.

Though the international community first began taking notice of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayiba after its spectacular coordinated bombing and shooting attacks in Mumbai, India, in November 2008, the group was established in 1987 at a time when Pakistan was in the throes of Islamic ferment.

With the army chief's allegation of bribe offer kicking up a storm, Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday said he had asked General V K Singh to take action but he did not want to pursue the matter for unknown reasons.

Unlike Wagah, where India and Pakistan mount an elaborate daily drama of military ritual watched by tourists on both sides, the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea is barren and desolate, a terrain bristling with hostility, discovers .

Members of the Muslim community who participated in the protest said that Kazmi's arrest was a clear indication that the Muslim community was being directly targeted in the name of fighting terrorism. reports

As Parliament demands action against Team Anna for defamatory remarks against the Parliamentarians on Sunday's rally at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal in an Exclusive Interview to CNN-IBN's Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai defends his remarks.

Struggling to gain entry to the top global beauty pageants due to objections from China, Miss Tibet 2011 Tenzin Yangkyi has said the best way for her to highlight the Tibetan question in the international arena is through participation in such contests.

Defence Minister A K Antony has ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Indian Army chief General V K Singh's allegation that he was offered a bribe Rs 14 crore to sanction the purchase of a consignment of sub-standard vehicles.

Tricolours, Anna caps, patriotic songs -- a day-long protest by Anna Hazare at Jantar Mantar on Sunday demanding justice for whistleblowers, who were killed, fighting corruption, had all its usual ingredients.

India and South Korea on Sunday agreed to expand their political and security ties besides upgrading the already booming business cooperation to achieve an ambitious trade target of USD 40 billion (Rs 2,08,000 cr) by 2015, doubling the figure.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday came to the defence of senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, whom NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra has accused of meeting the officials of companies involved in the 2G scam, saying the charges levelled against him are "false" and "baseless".

Continuing his explosive tirade against the Bharatiya Janata Party, NRI businessman Anshuman Mishra on Saturday made several allegations about top leaders of the saffron party, during an interview with STAR News.

Seeking to mollify Sri Lanka after the vote against it in United Nations Human Rights Council, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday wrote to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, telling him that India made all efforts and succeeded in introducing an "element of balance" in the United States-sponsored resolution.

The Indian Air Force on Saturday showed an impressive gesture by air lifting 10 critical passengers from Chandrakot area to Jammu, after a mini bus fell 500 feet in deep gorge near Batot on Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Hundreds of Sikhs, including a large number of women and university students participated in a protest on Friday outside the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, California, to show support to Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana who was sentenced to capital punishment in the case of murder of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995.

Despite the fact that Al Qaeda's top brass has been ruthlessly eliminated in US-operated drone strikes and ground operations in Pakistan, including its very chief Osama bin Ladin, the group has strengthened itself at both ideological and financial grounds, reports .

"Changes should be visible in six months and the manifesto should be implemented within a year as there is no guarantee when Lok Sabha elections are announced after that," Mulayam said, addressing party leaders and workers at a function to mark the 102nd anniversary of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia in Lucknow.

After making a strident campaign for his comeback, B S Yeddyurappa on Friday said he would accept the decision of the central BJP leadership on utilising his services "in whatever capacity" as Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda continued to insist there would be no change of guard.

Two Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Legislative Assembly, accused of watching obscene pictures on an iPAD in the Gujarat assembly, have been given a clean chit by the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.

The Central Vigilance Commission has come out with a stunning report on the "public-private partnership" model of the nexus between corporates, politicians and bureaucrats to perpetrate large-scale corruption.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has pulled up the government for mere lip service to the recommendations of the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee it had itself constituted in 2005 to study the status of Muslims in India.

Lieutenant General K T Parnaik, the third highest ranking officer in the Indian Army, is responsible for guarding 1,896 kilometres of India's border with Pakistan and China. He spoke to Rediff.com in an exclusive and fascinating interview.

China has conducted a massive military exercise in the high altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, close to the disputed borders with India, during which it has for the first time tested the multi-role J-10 fighter jets.

This is a question that is being debated not only in the UN Human Rights Council meeting at Geneva or Sri Lanka, but in India as well. This came about, typically the way Parliament responds to issues these days, after members from Tamil Nadu stalled the crucial pre-budget parliamentary session, says Colonel R Hariharan

After the Karnataka porngate, a similar scandal has hit the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat assembly where two of its MLAs have come under the scanner for allegedly watching obscene pictures, prompting the speaker to seize their tablets and order a probe.

Anshuman Mishra, the Independent candidate for Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand who is in the thick of a controversy for getting the support from Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, has left the saffron party in a spot of bother.

Heavily-armed French police in bullet-proof vests and helmets have cordoned off a residential area where reportedly a French national of North African origin who declared that he was a member of the Al Qaeda network is holed up.

Virtually putting India and 11 others countries on notice, the United States has asked them to significantly reduce by June 28 the purchase of Iranian oil to avoid sanctions, as it announced a list of nations that will be exempted from the curbs.

Republican hopeful Mitt Romney has secured a commanding win in the Illinois presidential primary, taking him a step closer to bagging the party's nomination to challenge incumbent Barack Obama in the November presidential elections. With about one-fifth of the votes counted, Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, had garnered 54 per cent of the total votes polled, with his nearest rival Rick Santorum, the former Senator from Pennsylvania.

The rising prices of fossil fuels and the unreliability of alternative sources like solar and wind power means that the charms of nuclear power may still returns, thanks to improvements in safety and technology, says .

Is the mystery over Ilyas Kashmiri's death finally solved? Days after the Pakistani media reported that the HuJI chief was spotted in North Waziristan the Al Qaeda in a rare statement has declared him a martyr.

Even as Mukul Roy took the oath of office as railway minister in the presence of a sombre-looking Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose body language showed the discomfort of the Congress with its ally Trinamool Congress which has given them a run around, the United Progressive Alliance managers were sighing with relief on Tuesday, says .

Pulling up the Centre for its "casual" approach on the important issue of decriminalisation of homosexuality, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it needs to be condemned. After going through various affidavits of the government, a bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhyay said the Centre has taken this case very casually.

Houseboat owners in summer capital Srinagar on Monday staged a floating protest in river Jhelum against the government decision disallowing repair of the damaged houseboats parked at the Dal Lake, the Nagin Lake and the Jhelum River. Mukhtar Ahmed reports

In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN Editor in Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Mamta Banerjee about the recent row over former Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and the strained relationship with the Congress.

India needs well-educated and competent politicians, says Abhishek Mishra, who resigned from his job as a professor at IIM-Ahmedabad to join the Samajwadi Party. Now appointed UP's minister of state for protocol, he tells why he has great hopes for the future.

The re-nomination of Ahluwalia, Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand whose term expires on April 2, was never in doubt. The BJP leadership, however, made it clear to him on Monday that alliance partner Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren was unwilling to share the Rajya Sabha seat.

At the Line of Control, young Indian soldiers -- in their 20s and 30s -- defend one of the world's most volatile borders. Battling harsh weather, tough terrain and a hostile enemy -- as old as the Indian nation itself -- these soldiers face a war every day to hold the peace. Let us salute them for that.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said difficult decisions were getting "more difficult" because of coalition compulsions. Replying to debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's Address, he spoke about the opposition to the NCTC and responded to the demands by Tamil parties for supporting UN resolution against Sri Lanka. Here's the full text of his address.

Faced with pressures from its allies the Janata Dal-United and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Bharatiya Janata Party has relented and given up its demand of fielding its full share of candidates for Rajya Sabha from Bihar and Jharkhand, and also denied a ticket to its Deputy Leader in the Upper House S S Ahluwalia for another term.

Dubbing the National Centre for Counter Terrorism as worse than the Prevention Of Terrorism Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey her reservations over the counter-terrorism provision.

Trinamool Congress on Monday ruled out any action against Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned as railway minister, saying that he has been asked to attend the parliamentary party meeting which party chief Mamata Banerjee is expected to attend.

China may be grappling with internal problems but that has not stopped it from looking after its strategic interests and projecting its military might. India would do well to get over its Pakistan-obsession and turn its attention to its bigger and more powerful neighbour in the east, says .

Two months after being forced to skip the Jaipur Literary Festival, controversial author Salman Rushdie on Saturday hit out the Congress, suggesting that his presence there was blocked because of "useless electoral calculations". Participating in the India Today Conclave, he said India "deserves to be led by better leaders".

The Gujarat unit of the Congress on Saturday said that the Time magazine as well as the Brookings Institution's recent articles on Chief Minister Narendra Modi, which praised him for the state's development, were "biased, partial" and "highlight wrong facts about Gujarat".

Modi, who figured on the cover page of the latest issues of the Asia edition of the prestigious magazine which hit the stands on Friday, could put up a challenge to Gandhi in particular after the recently held Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, where Congress fared poorly.

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has asked Pakistanis to revolt against their government and military by staging uprisings on the pattern of 'Arab Spring' and labelled the nation's army as "slaves of America".

"I am asking our authorities to bear your views in mind when they handle such visits in future and to share such information as they may have about such visits with the government of Tamil Nadu beforehand," Dr Singh said in a letter to Jayalalithaa.

India-born former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was on Friday found guilty by a United States court of hate crime and invasion of privacy for spying on his roommate's gay sexual encounter with another man in 2010.

Jurors deciding the fate of India-born Rutgers student Dharun Ravi accused of spying on his gay roommate, who later committed suicide, finished the second day of their deliberations without reaching a verdict.

Losing her two-month-long grim battle for survival, two-year-old battered baby girl Falak, whose harrowing ordeal had shocked the country, died in New Delhi on Thursday night following a cardiac arrest.

Former Army chief General V P Malik has observed that India must step up its vigil along the Chinese border in Arunachal Pradesh as its eastern neighbour might try to "forcefully occupy" Indian territories. "India should remain vigilant from the evil designs of China which may forcibly occupy some of the territories in north-west and in Arunachal Pradesh," he said.

From Rs 11.35 crore in 2004 to Rs 87.27 crore in 2010 and now Rs 111.64 crore -- this is by and large the story of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati. Her affidavit which was filed before the Lok Sabha on Tuesday shows a phenomenal rise in her assets; and for the 58 months that she ruled as the chief minister her assets went up by nearly Rs 59 crore, reports .

Bo, who was replaced by Vice Premier and Politburo member Zhang Dejiang, was known in China for his populist Maoists revival campaign and had been seen as one of the leading contenders to join party's powerful nine-member Politburo standing committee, which virtually governs the country.

Our twisted minds may have justified the cruelty and inhumanity that Gujarat was witness to in 2002. A decade later, do we feel the need to reconsider our support for what we thought was 'right' back then, asks .

Three-and-a-half years since Bihar was ravaged by floods after a breach in the eastern embankment of the Kosi river, a one-man commission set up to probe the cause of it finally began public hearing in Patna, officials said on Thursday.

The conspiracy to bomb the Israeli diplomat's car in New Delhi was hatched in early 2011 when two Iranian nationals came to India to conduct recce of the embassy besides monitoring the entry and exit timing of diplomats, official sources said in New Delhi on Thursday.

As Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi held on defiantly saying it was his duty to get the Railway Budget passed, Parliament was on Thursday rocked over the issue of Trinamool Congress' demand for his removal which government said was under "active consideration".

"There has been increasing international pressure on Pakistan to break off this intimate relationship between the ISI and LeT, but it has thus far come to naught," Ashley Tellis, who is senior associate, South Asia Programme with the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, said in his latest policy outlook The Menace That Is Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

On a day of dramatic developments, The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday night sought the removal of its senior-most nominee in the Union Cabinet, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, hours after he proposed a hike in railway passenger fares, plunging the UPA government in an unusual political crisis.

The political crisis for the Congress in Uttarakhand appears to have blown over on Wednesday with Union minister and rebel leader Harish Rawat falling in line amid speculation that a compromise deal has been worked out by the party leadership.

Pakistan's cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Wednesday pulled out of the upcoming India Today Conclave in New Delhi, citing the presence of controversial author Salman Rushdie at the same event.

Eighty five-year-old Shiromani Alkali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday created two records in one go by becoming the chief minister of Punjab for the fifth time and the first in the reorganised state's history to return to power for the second successive tenure heading the SAD-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance ministry.

Deputy Chief of the Army Staff Lieutenant General Ramesh Halgali recently surprised students and Army personnel alike when he chose to perform a skydive, while visiting the Army Adventure Skydiving Camp.

The convenient gadget age of iPads and Kindles have probably shot down its bulkiest ancestor. The Encyclopedia Britannica, which has been in continuous print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1768, said on Tuesday that it will continue only with digital versions currently available online, and discontinue with its print editions.

United States President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday enjoyed a game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men's Basketball Tournament between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky at the University of Dayton in Arena, Ohio.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati may have lost the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh but the defeated chief minister's wealth as declared has jumped to Rs 111 crore, a 25 per cent increase in the last two years.

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Wednesday took home Alabama and Missisippi in another crucial round of primaries to pick Barack Obama's contender, dealing a blow to front-runner Mitt Romney's hopes of making a mark in southern America's Conservative bastions.

Dharun Ravi, the 20-year-old former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to record his roommate's sexual encounters, was a 'kid who had an experience that he wasn't ready for', his lead attorney Steven Altman told the jury in a New Brunswick, NJ courtroom on Tuesday. reports

Armed forces of India and United States on Tuesday executed a joint cordon and search drill to neutralise suspected insurgents, in a specially-constructed training area at the ranges in an abandoned village as part of the ongoing Yudh Abhyas 2012 exercise.

Indian spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Tuesday offered to hold talks with the Taliban to usher in peace in the region, saying it would help foster understanding among people with divergent views.

Congress member of Parliament Vijay Bahuguna was on Tuesday sworn in as the chief minister of Uttarakhand after the Congress overruled a revolt by another MP Harish Rawat, who is said to have offered to resign from the Union government.

A recent report put out by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch revealed that 47 per cent of the newly-elected Uttar Pradesh assembly has candidates with criminal cases pending against them.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, never before a force to reckon with in Manipur, has won seven seats, overtaking established political forces like the Manipur People's Party. If Chief Minister Ibobi Singh is not successful in tackling the woes of the hard-working Manipuris, the state may abandon the Congress, says .

Speculation over former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi taking the stand to defend himself vanished quickly on Monday morning as he said, at the urging of his defence team, that he will not testify and the defence rested its case after calling its final witness, a police detective who had also been questioned on Friday.

To bolster United States President Barack Obama's image ahead of Presidential election, the Obama Campaign has come up with a video featuring former President Bill Clinton praising Obama's handling of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound last year.

No sooner than the campaign for the recently concluded 2007 state assembly elections started in Uttar Pradesh, two sons rose up from rival camps -- Rahul Gandhi, referred widely by both friends and foes as Congress 'yuvaraj' and Samajwadi Party pointsman Akhilesh Yadav, who was now awaiting his coronation as the state's youngest ever chief minister. reports.

"Love, peace, tolerance" is what Pakistani students shouted for when asked by visiting spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar what he should speak about. Ravi Shankar regaled the audience at the famous Forman Christian College in Lahore as he spoke about love, religion and answered number of questions.

Sixty per cent Americans say that the war in Afghanistan has not been not worth fighting and just 30 per cent believe that the Afghan public supports the US mission in their country -- marking the sour state of attitudes on the war even before the shooting rampage allegedly by a US soldier this weekend.

As the government prepares to face the opposition in Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday exuded confidence that the United Progressive Alliance has "all the numbers" that are needed to tackle issues.

The ship with more than 4,000 crew members has been a part of history over the past 50 years. It was involved in several wars and played a prominent role in the Cuban missile crisis. It also served as a spotter ship for John Glenn's historic orbit of Earth.

The unsolved mystery about the June 3, 2011 killing of Al Qaeda linked Pakistani jehadi leader and the chief of the pro-Kashmir Harkatul Jehadul Islami, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri, in a United States drone attack in South Waziristan Agency, has been deepened further amid Pakistani media reports that he was spotted in North Waziristan recently, reports

In Hubli on a mission of show of strength, former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday made it clear that he would not ask the Bharatiya Janata Party high command for chief ministership and that he would not campaign for the March 18 Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha bypoll in the wake of the attack on him by chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda.

With a moment of silence, prayers and a vow to rebuild the nation, Japan on Sunday marked the first anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that killed nearly 19,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since 1986.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not attend the swearing-in ceremonies of Parkash Singh Badal as Punjab chief minister in Chandigarh and that of Akhilesh Yadav as UP chief minister, said sources.

Suspended Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt has said that the Nanavati Commission, which is enquiring into the 2002 Gujarat riots, should submit its second report to the governor of Gujarat, and not Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Akhilesh Yadav is acutely conscious of the fact that he has to take along the senior leaders in the party even as he tries to infuse the new blood, new technology and new ways into the state government, says

After tiding over the teething troubles over his succession followed by his formal anointment by emerging as the unanimous choice of Samajwadi Party MLAs, Akhilesh Yadav's next destination on Saturday was Raj Bhawan, where he staked claim to form the next Uttar Pradesh government.

Akhilesh Yadav, the youngest chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, represents the change the state needs today. But he will have to handle difficult and complex challenges to consolidate the Samajwadi Party's gains, writes rediff.com's .

Pakistan's new Inter-Services Intelligence chief, Lt Gen Zahir-ul-Islam, is the nephew of Indian National Army hero Shah Nawaz Khan and through him, shares a tenuous link with Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan.

Friday happened to be the first day for the defence in the sensational trial in which Ravi, 20, the former Rutgers University student is charged with invasion of privacy, bias against gays (hate crime) and 13 other counts.

With some gestures and promises, to an average electorate, Akhilesh Yadav appeared to be harmonising socialism with the changed economic realities of post-liberalisation India, even though he is yet to be counted as a visionary, notes .

Pointing out that 10 Janpath, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence, is the most important address and not 7 Race Course Road, the prime minister's residence, Bharatiya Janata Party veteran leader Lal Krishna Advani hyas said it may well have become his residence, had he agreed to late Rajiv Gandhi's proposal way back in 1991.

The father of the young IPS officer mowed down by a suspected member of the mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh on Friday alleged there was a well-planned conspiracy against his son who did not receive cooperation of local police and authorities.

Despite "impressive" achievements in various sectors in recent years, India is unlikely to be a superpower and in fact, should not aspire to become one, a study by the prestigious London School of Economics has concluded.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday ruled out any "damage" to the United Progressive Alliance government in the wake of electoral outcomes in which, she said, wrong choice of candidates and weak organisation in Uttar Pradesh played a role in the party's dismal performance.

Accusing the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party of raising the minority sub-quota issue mid-way during the Uttar Pradesh polls for their political gains, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Wednesday said this helped in large-scale transfer of Muslim votes to Samajwadi Party.

Well before the counting of votes commenced at 8 am on March 6, Mayawati moved out of 4 Kalidas Marg, the UP chief minister's official residence, which she had converted into an inaccessible and impregnable fortress.

The most significant aspect of the elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly the results for which were announced on March 6, was not even the rout of the Congress Party, but the humiliation suffered by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in what has been described as their pocket boroughs of Rae Bareli and Amethi, says

The next 10 days will tell you whether the United Progressive Alliance and its leading constituent, the Congress, have learnt the right lessons from their poor performance in the assembly elections held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Tuesday owned "full responsibility" for the party's flop show in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections but skirted questions about resigning from the post over the issue.

'If the older generation of SP leaders come back to power, it will ruin the opportunity. They will misgovern, they will be stale. UP and the SP's destiny is inter-linked right now,' Professor Rajesh Misra, head of the sociology department at Lucknow University, tells .

Terming the "dismal performance" of Congress in the assembly polls as the "second consecutive defeat" of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said the Congress had made the elections a prestige issue.

'Hawa' is the public discourse that transforms electoral issues and caste calculus into the hard numbers on the EVM machine, says . The hawa plays a critical role in influencing the fluctuating voter, the fence sitter, who is often the small caste group not mobilised by any political party, or the small but significant number of voters within caste blocks who doesn't vote with the community.

They might have butterflies in their stomach, a dry mouth and sweaty palms. However, on camera, they exuded confidence and the air of business as usual. This was the palpable mood of politicians across parties a day before the result of the most crucial set of elections since 2009 was to be declared.

Tuesday will not only determine the political fate of India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, but will also mark the success or failure of several political bigwigs who led the campaign of their respective political outfits.

Hundreds of opponents of Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin on Monday gathered at Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow to attend a rally, denouncing his victory at the presidential polls as illegitimate.

Decades later, Tara Trust, an NGO from Goa, taking inspiration from the story of Sadako Sasaki, has launched The 1000 Crane Project, where it attempts to get underprivileged kids from Goa and other cities of India to paint 1,000 T-shirts depicting cranes.

Team Anna on Monday asked the Congress to make public expenses incurred for hiring choppers for the just-concluded assembly elections to five states, particularly for party chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul. Anna Hazare and his close aide Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the expenses should be made public.

With most exit polls nudging Congress to the fourth place in Uttar Pradesh, senior party leader Salman Khurshid on Monday said though the picture does not meet the expectation, the reality may be better than what is being predicted.

The Congress on Monday claimed that it will play a crucial role in the formation of the next government in Uttar Pradesh and dismissed as personal views Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma's suggestions for a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Arun Jaitley, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and the Bharatiya Janata Party's strategist, is getting ready to take on the United Progressive Alliance in the coming Budget session of Parliament. Jaitley's legal background and his envious reach in New Delhi's media is a potent combination helping his party to push its political agenda. He spoke exclusively to Sheela Bhatt on the Uttar Pradesh election.

In a Holi tradition unique to Nandgaon and Barsana villages, men sing provocative songs to gain the attention of women, who then "beat" them with bamboo sticks called "lathis". Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours, heralds the beginning of spring and is celebrated all over India.

'The purposes of our document are three-fold: To lay out the opportunities that India enjoys in the international sphere; to identify the challenges it is likely to confront; and to define the broad approach that India should adopt as it works to enhance its strategic autonomy in global circumstances that are likely to remain volatile and uncertain for some time to come.'

Exit polls predict that the BSP and SP will not get enough votes to form a government in Uttar Pradesh, hinting at the possibility that either party may turn to the Congress or BJP for support. reports from Luknow.

It's been 10 years since the Godhra carnage and Narendra Modi is still around and divisive. Why, precisely, should the world think that the man who presided over India's worst governance failure in decades is somehow a role model for efficiency, asks .

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has secured a record third term in the Kremlin after recording a landslide victory over his four rivals at presidential polls amid allegations of rigging and fraud.

Hundreds of people on Sunday joined the rallies and candle light vigils held in several cities, including New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, and Tamarac, Florida to mark the 10th anniversary of the Gujarat riots and to pay homage to the victims.

Having completed a grueling election campaign across Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav is now back in Lucknow eagerly awaiting the verdict of the people. In an exclusive interview with rediff.com's , he shares his strategy and outlines the factors that went in favour of his party in this election

After the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Muslim outfit on Saturday protested the shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in Chandigarh. The movie is based on the killing of the Al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad (Pakistan). The outfit alleged that shooting of the film will disturb the peaceful atmosphere between the communities in a secular country.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the proposed National Counter Terrorism Centre was nothing but a ploy to take away states' powers by the United Progressive Alliance. Accusing the Centre of weakening the federal system, Modi questioned the need for a NCTC instead of anti-terror laws such as the Prevention Of Terrorism Act. Through this proposed body, the Centre wanted to use the Intelligence Bureau in states' domain, he said.

Rahul Gandhi is not to be blamed if the Congress does not perform well in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, whose results will be out on Tuesday, party leaders said on Saturday. "A leader creates an atmosphere. To convert that atmosphere into votes and seats is the responsibility of candidates and the organisation," All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh said.

A post-poll survey conducted by CNN-IBN, The Week and CSDS in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur has revealed some interesting results. The Samajwadi Party will win 34 per cent of the total vote share of the UP polls, according to the survey.

Rejecting the judicial probe into the attack on journalists, private television news channels on Saturday sought immediate arrest of the lawyers involved in assaulting mediapersons and policemen in court premises in Bengaluru. "We don't accept judicial probe into the incident. This is nothing but an eyewash. The government is trying to evade from its responsibilities.

Polling for the final and seventh phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections covering 60 seats spread over 10 districts would be held tomorrow that would decide the fate of 962 candidates including Samajwadi Party's Muslim face Mohammad Azam Khan.

The ISI's overwhelming involvement in national politics has weakened the mainstream political parties, given a boost to horse-trading and arrested the growth of the political culture in the country. reports from Islamabad.

Even as the United Progressive Alliance government in the Centre is finding it hard to find an amicable solution to the raging Telangana statehood movement in the South, the Bodo tribe community in Northeast has revived its long-standing demand for a separate state to be carved out of the state of Assam. reports.

United States Special forces teams are currently stationed in five South Asian countries including India as part of the counter-terrorism co-operation with these nations, a top Pentagon commander has disclosed.

The shooting of Kathryn Bigelow's film on Osama bin Laden in Chandigarh to depict the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad was stalled on Friday by Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, who objected to the hoisting of Pakistani flags.

Self-proclaimed 'judge' of the United Kingdom Sharia court Shiekh Anjem Chaudary, who has sought for the implementation of the Sharia law in India had stated that he would hold a rally in New Delhi on March 3. profiles the man.

Sanjay Tiwari has become the bane of powerful Congress leader Kripashankar Singh's existence. Tiwari, who hails from a humble slum in Mumbai, has alleged that Singh has amassed huge wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. After obtaining information by filing several RTI applications, Tiwari filed a PIL against him in the Bombay high court.

The police on Friday burst teargas shells and used batons to quell violent crowds of advocates, who pelted stones and attacked media persons and the police in the city civil court premises, leaving several of them injured including a deputy commissioner of police.

Training together to counter the scourge of insurgency in various contemporary scenarios including jungle warfare, Chakravyuh, the three-day outdoor validation exercise, tested the week-long training, imparted at various counter insurgency modules and at the plethora of firing ranges in the guerrilla warfare school.

Indian Americans are committed and they are great when it comes to medicine, engineering, business or anything else that they touch, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley told reporters in the state capital Columbia on Wednesday after a meeting with visiting Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao.

The May 2 raid was conducted only after the Americans got hold of credible and actionable intelligence about the identity of the high value target from a senior ISI official, ultimately killing the world's most wanted terrorist, reports

62 will not be allowed to happen again. Take the word of an old war veteran for it, says Colonel John Taylor (retd), even as there is talk that China may strike at India this year and try to grab some territory.

As the summer approaches, the Indian Army is getting ready for its third massive exercise designed to test and validate some of the new concepts envisaged in the transformation process it has begun implementing in the past 18 months. These combined with joint-exercises with the US and Indonesian armies should keep out soldiers battle-hardened and in tune with modern war concepts, says .

Campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections came to a close on Thursday evening, with top leaders of different political outfits unleashing their horses in the 10 districts running along the Uttarakhand and Nepal border, where the seventh and final round of polling will take place on Saturday. in Lucknow.

Observing that prima facie the Director General Shipping acted outside the jurisdiction while imposing ban on the ships insured by a Romanian firm, Bombay high court on Thursday asked why no action was taken against the owner of M V Rak, which sank off Mumbai last year.

The Legislature committee probing the porngate episode on Thursday decided to summon three members of Legislative Assembly who had to quit as ministers following the scandal, even as its decision to first question the television channels which aired the footage has sparked a controversy.

Expressing displeasure for not furnishing details of the homosexual population in India , the Supreme Court on Thursday asked for all relevant records from the Centre about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, including their number and the number of HIV-infected among them.

Communicating on cyberspace continues to be the most preferred form for any terrorist organisation. Messages continue to flow through emails and also on social networking sites and more often than not these messages go unnoticed as they are encrypted. reports.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is a good partner in war against terrorism, even as Pakistan military or the Inter-Services Intelligence, according to her, have maintained relationship with terrorist groups for decades.

One of the chapters in the document titled 'Asian Theatre' has quite elaborate comments on China, and opines that India's China strategy has to strike a careful balance between cooperation and competition, economic and political interests, bilateral and regional contexts. Rediff.com publishes verbatim a part of the chapter 'Asian Theatre'.